As with many fights between intimates, the ones between Vince (Adrian Grenier) and Eric (Kevin Connolly) on "Entourage" are little more than tests of will, games of chicken in which projecting one's own inadequacies is as potent a weapon as pointing out those of the other person.
Early in tonight's episode, the first of the show's sixth season, the two discuss Eric's plan to move into his own house. Vince, for his part, plays it cool. Eric fishes for attention: "C'mon, Vince, you know you don't like to be alone."
"Ha," comes the retort. "I don't like to be alone?"
"No."
"How would you know?" Vince parries. "You've never seen me alone. You're always with me 'cause you can't be alone."
"Have you ever lived by yourself?" Eric asks, pleased with himself.
Vince is having none of it. "Have you? And the guest house doesn't count."
Eric is silent.
"Exactly."
It is the conflict, the rupture from which this season's narrative tension must be wrung. It is also the only moment in this episode with heat beyond a low simmer. By now, the characters of "Entourage" (HBO, 10:30 p.m. Sundays) have become complacent, impervious even to their own growth. Eric, Vince's manager, may take on other clients and move out of the house; Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), Vince's driver, may date Jamie-Lynn Sigler; and Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon), Vince's washout older brother, may land himself a spot on a prime-time drama. But this show about four childhood friends from Queens navigating Hollywood will always be a show about an employer and his subordinates.
Without Vince on top, there's no order to preserve, and though "Entourage" plays at tweaking the star system, it's enthralled by it, just another groupie.
The end of last season saw Vince saved from certain obscurity by Martin Scorsese, who taps the fading star to star in his new film. That the new movie is about Jay Gatsby does not appear to have left any marks on the young star, a man-child still game to use his fame to bed whatever young thing crosses his path. After all, there aren't even books on Vince's shelves to be inspected for cracked spines.
Scorsese doesn't seem to be making a return appearance: Next week's episode features the film's premiere, with Vince strutting the red carpet like a made man. Was there ever any doubt? An "Entourage" without a successful and blithe Vincent Chase is no show whatsoever. Maybe it's the stuff of basic cable, or God forbid, network, but schlubs don't play well on HBO.
